**Meet Jim Woehrle: A Journey Through Career, Community, and Family**

Jim Woehrle, 55, and his wife, Ann Schmitz, 55, live in Midland with their dog, Sunny and two cats, Otto and Ollie.

They have two children: Ben, 25, and Hannah, 23.

Woehrle graduated from Michigan State University in 1991 with a bachelor's in journalism. He later attended Central Michigan University and earned a bachelor's in education in 1999 and a master's in education in 2003.

How long have you lived in Midland, and what brought you here? We moved to Midland in January of 1997, so I would have been 26, not quite 27. We followed my wife's job around. She was climbing the corporate ladder at the time. She had a job in Bay City with a pretty big corporation, and we had some friends who lived in Midland who said Midland was a nice place to live and, 'You should live in Midland if you're gonna work in Bay City.'

So we did, and at the time, I was a journalist. I was a newspaper reporter. I had been doing newspaper work for about seven or eight years at that point, and I was looking for a newspaper job, and it took a while. And so a friend of mine suggested that I go back to CMU to try to get a teaching degree, and so I did. I got my teaching degree, and I've been teaching ever since. So moving to Midland was sort of out of necessity, and going back to school to become a teacher was me trying something else.

What is your profession? English teacher at Midland High School and newspaper advisor. Journalism is part of the English department. So the short answer is usually an English teacher. But advising a newspaper or a publication is a big part of my life. So I always say, English teacher and newspaper advisor.

What are some of your interests and hobbies? Being an English teacher, I love to read books. I like to cook, whether it's grilling outdoors or cooking in my house. I believe in traveling and seeing as much of the world as I possibly can.

Before I broke my ankle, I liked to go jogging a lot. I was pretty slow, but I do like to jog, or run, as you call it, and play with my dog. I guess, you know, watching movies or TV shows, too.

What are your favorite things to do in Midland? When the kids were growing up, we used to take them to the Tridge and Dow Gardens. When my kids were in school, we went to pretty much every school sporting event or went to shows at the Center for the Arts. We still like going to see shows at the Center for the Arts. Just hanging out at the various restaurants, whether it's places like WhichCraft or Three Bridges, or I like a good burger, and Diamond Jim's is a pretty good burger. Walking around the neighborhood, I guess I would say, and socializing with my friends.

What do you enjoy about living in this community? I'm sort of speaking in the past tense because both of my kids were born here, so it was, and probably still is, a great place to raise a family. The school system was great. Both of my kids graduated from Midland Public Schools. Both of them are proud Chemics from Midland High School. So the school system was great. It gave our kids so many great opportunities to do things, whether it was the performing arts, sports, academics, they were involved in so many different extracurriculars.

There is great stuff for our families to do. We had season tickets to the Loons when the kids were growing up. The Loons were a great place to take them. Midland is clean, and it's generally really safe. It's situated in a place where I can visit my family downstate and only be a couple of hours' drive. We have a place up in Traverse City, so it's pretty close.

What is a message you’d like to give the community? Please support your public school district as much as you possibly can. Support all of the people in your community with joy and hope.

I was pretty bummed when the school bond proposal was voted down. So I would say, please support your public schools as much as you can because they do great work in our public school district.

Have an idea for the next Meet Your Neighbor? Email Community News Editor Max Milne at max.milne@hearst.com and let him know!